


Together or Not at All

by iam93percentstardust



Category: The Old Guard (Movie 2020)
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Inspired By Tumblr, Introspection, M/M, Pre-Van Scene
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-23
Updated: 2020-08-23
Packaged: 2021-03-06 17:34:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 690
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26062774
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/iam93percentstardust/pseuds/iam93percentstardust
Summary: He has the barest fraction of a second to turn, see his love with his eyes closed and hands bound, and make a decision. Joe can fight his way out of here, he knows he can, even with Booker too injured to fight. But if he does, then Nicky will be taken and he’ll wake up somewhere alone.
Relationships: Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani/Nicky | Nicolò di Genova
Comments: 15
Kudos: 159





	Together or Not at All

**Author's Note:**

> This is inspired by a tumblr post that I can't find anymore (so please feel free to let me know if you know the one I'm talking about) where it was someone's headcanon that Joe let himself be taken so Nicky wouldn't be alone and I liked it so I decided to write a short little ficlet about it. If I step on any toes, please tell me

Joe remembers a day, some decade or so after they first met, after they stopped killing each other but before their fucking turned into making love. They had been near the sea, in a small village that had looked at Nicky with distrust and poorly disguised fear. Nicky had wanted to leave; Joe had been the one to tell him to stay for reasons that he no longer remembers. They had rented a room, gone to bed that night, and when Joe had woken up the next morning, it had been to find that Nicky was gone and a man he didn’t recognize sitting at the small table in their room. He remembers the man telling him that he and his men had rescued him from the invader, remembers the betrayal in his eyes as Joe pried Nicky’s location out of him before killing him.

He remembers finding Nicky clawing his way out of a shallow grave not far out of town, remembers babbling apologies for not believing Nicky when he said that the town was trouble. He remembers Nicky pressing quick, little kisses all over his face and telling him that it wasn’t his fault.

“We go together,” Joe had said, “or not at all.”

He’d meant it as a promise, a guarantee that they would never be parted from each other again. And they had kept it—Nicky quoting it back to him when they finally came to Genoa and Joe felt uncomforted by the glares he received but didn’t want to force Nicky to leave his home, both of them saying it to Andy when she needed only one of them to go on a mission, learning the phrase in as many languages as possible because to them, it meant _everything_.

This is how they began this life and Joe knows as much as Nicky does that this is how they’ll leave it.

So when they’re attacked in their own safehouse—and _how_ , how did Copley find them?—and some sort of gas is hanging thick in the air, the sound of bullets echoing around the room, and he takes a knife to the side because there’s no one at his six, he knows exactly what’s happened.

It takes him less than a moment to turn and see someone carrying Nicky away, Nicky had been right by the canister of gas when one of the soldiers threw it into the room, who hadn’t had time to pull his shirt up over his face like Joe had even though he had known it wouldn’t do much good against the gas long term but he’d been hoping that he could hold off until they were safe.

He has the barest fraction of a second to turn, see his love with his eyes closed and hands bound, and make a decision. Joe can fight his way out of here, he knows he can, even with Booker too injured to fight. But if he does, then Nicky will be taken and he’ll wake up somewhere alone and probably not frightened because his Nicoló is not afraid of anything and besides, he would _know_ that Joe is coming for him. But he would still be alone and Joe cannot bear to let that happen, not to Andy, not to Booker, and especially not to his love.

And so in that barest fraction of a second that Joe has, he makes the decision that he won’t leave Nicky to wake up alone save for the person that Copley sold them out to. He pulls his shirt back down, doesn’t bother dodging the next bullet, and as he feels unconsciousness slowly creeping up over him, he can already hear Nicky scolding him for _allowing_ himself to be captured.

He smiles to himself at the thought. His lovely, kind Nicky who insists on together or not at all when it’s Joe in danger but never himself.

There’s a pair of black boots coming into view and as one last display of resistance, Joe yanks out his knife and slashes deep into the man’s leg before he lets his eyes close.

Nicky is waiting for him.


End file.
